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The article profiles the top entrepreneurs and executives of 2016 under the age of 40. Topics discussed include the career history of Brendan Bechtel, chief executive officer (CEO) of the engineering and construction company Bechtel Group, the strategies employed by CEFC China Energy chairman Ye Jianming to establish the Chinese oil company and the roles played by Jake Sullivan in U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and during her term as U.S. Secretary of State.

The article profiles 40 business and culture leaders under 40 years of age including Wework co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Adam Neumann, Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park, and DraftKings co-founder and CEO Jason Robins. It also profiles entertainer Taylor Swift, TaskRabbit chief operating officer (COO) Stacy Brown-Philpot, and mixed-martial-arts fighter Ronda Rousey.

The article discusses the move by some companies in the U.S. to look for ways to improve how they rate their employees. Companies like General Electric, Goldman Sachs and New York Life have decided to overhaul their employee performance reviews. Several software makers, including BetterWorks, Reflektive and Zugata, have encouraged companies to use mobile apps in reviewing job performance.

The article explores the increasing use of technology by companies to field workers schedule appointments and save time on repairs. Many technicians have used mobiles apps for scheduling, submitting reports and identifying needed parts. Gary Johnson, a vice president at shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes, noted the ability of service teams to answer questions faster because of technology.

The article reports on the growing interest among corporations of using software that organizes employee-training material into video-centric courses for smartphones and tablet computers. Information on a mobile app used by Walmart for training, which helped decrease the number of injuries deemed reportable to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is presented. The move by online payments company PayPal to adopt more nontraditional learning technology is also noted.

The article focuses on the plan of business software company Salesforce to guide companies that are struggling to capitalize on the benefits of digital technologies form an investment strategy. Topics covered include the company's formal process called Ignite, a forecast on the profitability of investing in cloud services and mobile apps, and the experts employed by Salesforce and its rivals that include Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP.

The article profiles Mikkel Svane, chief executive officer (CEO) of customer service software company Zendesk. He was named CEO in 2007 because his co-founders were busy writing code for their startup. The stock price of Zendesk tripled in 2016 compared with its initial public offering (IPO) price in 2014. The company is investing in bots that use artificial intelligence to answer questions without a human involved.

The article discusses how Mastercard's marketing team gather in an open-plan office and watch money disappear on a 40-foot display that broadcasts feeds, visualizations, and performance metrics for more than 60 markets. The official name of the elaborate array of tools, as well as the space in which they are housed, is the Conversation Suite. MasterCard began the experiment four years ago to create a "single source of truth" for optimizing its multimillion-dollar advertising budget.

The article reports that Slack is investing $80 million in third-party applications that complement its technology.

The article discusses the use of biometrics-driven software from software startup Limeade, a health-data analytics engine and employee management system, by energy company Williams Cos. to enhance employee health while capping medical-claims cost increases annually. Topics discussed include biometrics used to track fluctuations and encourage fitness program participation, increased employee engagement, and monthly competitions where employees get discounts off 2016 medical plan premiums.